Holy Paladins
The Holy Paladins were an elite branch of the Holy Knights, the warriors of the Holy Order. During the Heroic Age when the Holy Knights were made solely of Ogres, warriors of notable ability and devotion to the Dragon Gods were selected to be members of this special Order. Their missions included being sent to deal with the most dangerous enemies and situations, vanquishing monsters and villains who had defied the Holy Order's authority. After the Cataclysm, the Ogres withdrew into their own territory while the rest of the Universe descended into chaos. As their Watcher brethren eventually formed the SENTINEL Order and established the All Union, the Ogres refused to acknowledge their authority and would regularly defy them. When Crash re-emerged the Ogres pledged their loyalty to him and formed the core of the new Holy Order Army, which by necessity became open to warriors of other races so long as they worshiped the Gods. The Paladins however would remain made up solely of Ogres and Crash would use them as his elite cadre. However, even with the Paladins, the Holy Order failed to gain significant victories over the Watchers and SENTINEL. When Crash discovered the Sarans, they gradually replaced the Paladins as Crash's front line troops. While angry and jealous, the Ogres could not defy their God King and they took their demotion with quiet dignity. Despite this, the Paladins began training specifically to counter the sarans in the hopes that the Ogres could regain their station. When the Sarans overthrew Crash and set out on their Great Conquest, they steamrolled over the majority of the rank and file Holy Knights. Only the Paladins presented a significant counter to the Sarans onslaught, but even they could not stem the tide. After the Conquest abated and the Sarans returned to their secret homeworld, the humiliated Paladins once again began training to become stronger. When Crash again emerged during to punish the Sarans for their defiance, the Ogres were hopeful to regain their place as his favorites but were stymied when Crash selected a saran called Zanko to be his Holy Ghost, the representative of his authority in the Universe. Like Crash before him, the Holy Ghost used the sarans as the main thrust of the Holy Order's army. The Paladins were relegated to serving as bodyguards to Ogre leaders. When Crash again returned to the Midplane, the Ogres were quick to declare their allegiance to him and rallied to his side. After he destroyed Kazan and recovered the Bloodstone from Earth, his battleship Providence was raided by the Magnificent 7. After the Magnificent 7 escaped, Crash ordered the Ogres to send their greatest warriors after them and to bring the Dark Prince Cain back to him alive. To this end, the Ogres summoned their most powerful squad of Paladins lead by the Order's leader, Orion. Orion, who was the son of a great Ogre Consul who had been murdered by Cain was eager to for revenge. He lead his team on a great hunt for the Outlaws, eventually tracking them to the desert planet, Seere. Using a relic given to him by Crash called the Black Light which was used to pacify the original Deathwalks, Orion and the Paladins managed to overcome Cain. However before they could get away they were met by the rest of the Magnificent 7. One of Orion's warriors was overcome and killed by the Battle Slave Kara and in the confusion Cain managed to rally his strength and kill another of the Holy Paladins. Outnumbered, Orion along with his second in command Paris and another called Caius made good their escape. However, now free of the crippling influence of the Black Light, Cain transformed into an Oversaran and pursued them. When he finally caught up, Orion boasted that it was foolish of Cain to come alone as even he was no match for 3 of the best Holy Paladins. Cain jokingly agreed that may be true if he was in his normal form, but as an Oversaran he was on a different level. Cain quickly slaughtered the Holy Paladins and rendered Orion unable to fight. After torturing him, Cain managed to uncover Crash's plan with the Bloodstone which he reported to the rest of the Magnificent 7. As a unit, the Holy Paladins wore distinctive silver armor that set them apart from standard Holy Knights. Over this armor they would wear a tunic which had the Holy Order's symbol, the Light Cross emblazoned on it. Most Holy Paladins wore silver versions of the helmets worn by standard Holy Knights, but Orion and his team usually eschewed these in combat. Trivia - The Holy Paladins were lead by Lord Commander Orion who inherited the position from his father, Argon. Argon would eventually be elevated to the position of Holy Warlord of the Ogre Empire and thus would always have a squad of Paladins assigned to him. However, these warriors were powerless to stop him from being murdered by Cain on the Holy Ghost's orders for Argon's complicity in a plot to overthrow the sarans.